Thursday, December 8, 2016

Lately I have taken to sending e-mails to Toronto Star columnists. I have also written to the Prime Minister on two or three occasions.

We're not talking about angry Tweets, or dozens of e-mail messages, or about indiscriminate rants, much less unpleasant ad-hominen diatribes aimed at reporters and politicians. Still, Susan's concern is certainly warranted (she doesn't want me morphing into either Statler or Waldorf, those angry old muppet men).

That said, I may be done with the few topics that recently prompted me to take to my keyboard.

This morning I was ingesting my daily ration of news (Toronto Star, New York Times, and Quartz) and found it largely indigestible. This is a steady diet of worrisome stuff, after all. I can't write letters every time I read an item that rattles my cage. I'd spend my days doing nothing but. I certainly shouldn't devote too much time airing my concerns here, right? Who cares what I think, anyway?

Wednesday, November 30, 2016

Many years ago we were sitting around the kitchen table. We were eating something good, but it couldn't have been entirely healthy. The kids began to read the ingredients on the labels of the jars and other containers on the table. That's when someone discovered that one of the condiments claimed it contained "flavonoids".

It only took mere fractions of a second for us to invent "tasterenes".

In that same vein, yesterday I discovered that craveomones were ruling my body.

Wednesday, November 9, 2016

My life began as we emerged from horrible decades of genocide, world wars, and depression. The lessons we learned at unimaginable cost gave rise to an era of stability, growth, and prosperity accompanied by unprecedented international cooperation.

Today we stand at the edge of a precipice. A very dangerous time in history.

Saturday, November 5, 2016

The most remarkable totally scary thing is happening right before my eyes.

It's one of those massive fog-bound freeway pile ups in slow motion. It's a system with the rules tossed out the window. None of the usual strategies like steering or braking apply to ward off disaster.

Except it's not traffic that has me mesmerized like a King Cobra's afternoon snack.

Thursday, October 27, 2016

Meaning is a peculiar brew of knowledge and feelings. Isn't that the same basic recipe that defines every single one of us? Without that combination of knowledge and emotion, a person is not really a person, and a place is just a speck in the universe.

The stronger the emotions and the deeper the knowledge that bind us to a place, the more meaning we attach to it.

When the tug of emotion is strong, and the place is familiar, our bonds grow, with the most important places eventually looming large, punctuating the landscape of our feelings like so many villages, towns, and cities.

Ultimately, a place becomes home.

It's a simple four-letter word. Yet it means so much.

Leaving home is one of the most important transitions we make.

Leaving our parents' home, finding a home of our own, leaving our own home behind, and eventually finding another. None of this is easy, and it takes time.

Sunday, October 23, 2016

Toronto is not Montreal. I suppose that's painfully obvious, and it's a really good thing that that's the way it is. If Toronto were just like Montreal, that would mean be one less place worth visiting, and how sad would that be?

Wouldn't it be great though, if a passionate ex-Montrealer could get some really good Montreal comfort food in Toronto?

That's how I came to my quest to find Montreal smoked meat in Toronto good enough to justify going out of my way to get it. A wiser more realistic person (not to say a pessimist) probably should have said to themself "if you really want good smoked meat, GO TO MONTREAL!" But I'm not one to give up quite so easily. That's why Susan and I headed to Caplansky's Delicatessen.

Thursday, October 6, 2016

Well actually because you need some stuff to remediate the drippy thing that disposes of condensate from the heat exchanger thing-a-ma-jig on the home comfort system.

And let's say that you decide you need a four or five foot long piece of PVC. You kinda know you chose the Vespa over the SUV, but you feel that you need the PVC pipe, and so, what the hell, you buy it, because, well, Vespa.

Riding home I thought, what if I decided I needed an eight or even ten foot long section of PVC? I would have gone vertical.

Saturday, October 1, 2016

It was late on a balmy summer evening. I was fifteen years old, hanging out with my friends and neighbors' kids on the street. The day's light was fading fast. Soon it was too dark to continue playing catch.

Someone glanced at the darkened sky "Hey guys, what the heck is that?"

Thursday, September 15, 2016

If you're wondering why I am so excited about participating in the upcoming 2016 Distinguished Gentleman's Ride, feast your eyes on this. If you want an update on how my fundraising campaign is going click on this:

Thursday, September 8, 2016

I listen to the radio, like most people, I collect CDs, and I purchase songs and albums in the iTunes store.

As with my collection of museum photos that cycle on our television and computer screens,
my music collection streams from our iMac to fill our three-story
townhouse. I use a combination of the following tools and systems:

Wednesday, September 7, 2016

Art, in all of its forms, moves me. I believe artists make some of the most important contributions to society. They play a key role, yet they are, for the most part, not compensated enough for their work.

There was a cartoon, most likely Dilbert, or the Far Side. Its punch line was '... will work for recognition'. Even on that non-monetary scale, artists are often left wanting. The well-deserved recognition that some eventually earn, only comes when they are dead and long gone.

Susan and I are amateur art collectors. We have a modest art budget, and we agonize over the works we purchase, yet we are slowly but surely running out of wall space to display our collection. This considerably raises the stakes and makes any decision to purchase a new piece all the more difficult. In spite of our limitations, we are always on the hunt.

Ed Kilner is one of the friends who emerged from the process of this journal. I first met Ed on my grand 2013 tour. I stopped by briefly as I swung through Toronto headed south of the border to meet with up Bob and Karen in Pennsylvania. Then Ed dropped by our home in Montreal on his way to the Maritimes. Once Susan and I moved to Toronto, it was just a question of time before I would hit the road to explore my new home with Ed as my guide.

I owe Ed an apology for this long-overdue account of our rides exploring the country highways and byways north of the city.

Tuesday, August 9, 2016

This is exciting. Don't believe me? Would I stretch the truth? See for yourself. I've added some amazingly cool videos at the end of this post.

It promises to be a brand new experience for me. The exact opposite of riding with all the gear, all the time. Well, not the exact opposite, because the exact opposite would be to do that whole Lady Godiva thing, and well you didn't think I'd be up for that, did you?

Please read on. Your curiosity will be rewarded. This is another kind of 'evergreen' post that I continue to update until I post a follow up post once the 2016 Distinguished Gentleman's Ride enters the record books.

Sunday, July 31, 2016

There is still so much to do to get our new home to where it needs to be, and Susan and I don't want the work dragging on forever. That why I was reluctant to set out to join fellow members of the Toronto Moto Scooter Club for what was billed as a day long ride. When Susan said I should go, I threw my hat in the ring. I was lucky there was still room for me on the ride.

Sunday, July 10, 2016

A deeply rooted part of us is programmed to seek out and explore new worlds. That aspect of our humanity dreams of setting off in search of distant new places, even when they may, or may not, exist.

When the quest is very long and expensive, and the time comes to render a satisfactory account of the adventure to an overbearing potentate with a fickle disposition, we don't hesitate to lie in the most mesmerizing way. And that's how the Montreal suburb of Lachine got its name. When the impassible eponymous rapids brought the early French explorers to a full stop on the new continent, they named the place where they hit the wall "China - La Chine". There you go King Francis, mission accomplished! Finding a new route to India was another major 16th century mission foiled in large measure because the new world turned out to be not even remotely close to India. And that's how the native people of North America came to be Indians.

Thursday, June 23, 2016

I say that because by the time our kids are grown and off on their own, our hair is gray, our joints sometimes fail to cooperate as they once did, and we don’t always hear every little detail going on in our surroundings, we have long since become accustomed to putting our wives and kids first.

Sunday, June 12, 2016

Saturday night we got together at Jonathan and Vicky's to celebrate all the family June birthdays over a barbecue, some wine, beer, burgers, grilled chicken, snacks and deserts. The weather cooperated and even after the sun set, the air was warm, humid, and fragrant.

As often happens, the boys gathered on the back porch huddled around the grill as Jonathan performed that ritual guys do of charring all the delicious savory things in sight. The girls were in the living room in a circle around the coffee table. Heaven only knows what the gals were chatting about.

Saturday, June 4, 2016

They say the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. By that truism, I should be like one, or both, of my parents in more ways than not.

Of course, it's only a truism, which means that, scientifically speaking, the truism will likely often prove false. Still, we don't call them falsisms do we? That's because they do ring kind of true.

My father was, to those who knew him well, a devout Catholic. My mother was also in her own way devout and went to some significant lengths in the exercise of her Catholic faith. I paid a steep price for their devotion, when the most important decisions in my life flew in the face of that faith. For the longest time, I have declared myself to be a non-religious person. In fact, while I will defend the right of any human to practice their faith, subject to the usual democratic limits, I personally take a dim view of all religion.

Tuesday, May 31, 2016

When I interview you, one of the questions I ask is whether you are a solitary rider or don't mind riding in a group. It seems like a simple question, yet for a rider, it makes all the difference.

Group riding is a special kind of riding that is as different from commuting or fair weather solo pleasure riding as can be.

For one thing there is camaraderie, but that is not the key difference. The key difference is that riding in a group requires discipline and organization. Think Canadian Snowbirds (no, not Florida couch potatoes), or those group parachute jumps, or synchronized swimming, but not quite so demanding. Yet, for most more or less ordinary folks, group motorcycle riding is about as complex and demanding a road adventure skill as they are likely to encounter. It's a little challenging for humans. Oddly, insects, birds and fish do the most amazing stunts of coordinated flying and swimming and no one seems to get hurt. And yet we routinely disparage them (bird brain!). Silly humans.

Saturday, May 28, 2016

Just because it's a holiday Monday, doesn't mean your day is going to be lazy and hazy.

We rose and shone pretty early because Lauren and Harris had people to
meet. Out we went, the four of us, heading east to Montreal West. There's just a
touch of odd travel dis-symmetry there, seeing as we left from the West
Island, and Montreal West is indeed east of the West Island. I like
that. It must confound the tourists, like too many other things about
Montreal.

Thursday, May 26, 2016

I was riding home from Yorkdale Mall today. I had to go to the Apple Store to have my iPhone 5s replaced for the second time in 48 hours. Both phones basically turned themselves into bricks, all by themselves, with no help from me, that I know of. There must be something in the air.

As I headed north closer to home I saw a column of smoke rising. It looked angry and certainly out of place. It seemed to be coming from an area just north and west of Finch and Yonge.

Wednesday, May 25, 2016

The journey to Thunderbird's lair began for me when Susan dropped me off at the De la Savane Metro station. I still had some fares stored on the smart transit card in my wallet. I plunked my wallet down on the turnstile and waltzed right in.

Friday, May 20, 2016

Extracting Thunderbird from its winter lair just north of Montreal's Parc Lafontaine is one thing I'll be doing tomorrow. Riding it 500 kilometers to Toronto on Monday will bring the mission to a close.

The Honda Shadow had to be stored because our two car garage in Montreal could manage a Civic, a BMW X3, and a Vespa GTS, but sadly there was no room at the inn for Thunderbird. Not so with our new home in Toronto. Each of our parking spaces can accomodate a car or SUV and a motorcycle, as long as the bike is parked parallel to the wall at the front of the space.

Monday, May 16, 2016

I am like my grandfather's pocket watch that tells exactly the right time never less (or more) than twice a day. Well, not quite that bad, but I am running about a week slow. These events happened seven days ago. What can I say? Settling in after a major move is a little more than a full-time job, and keeping up with the dizzying world of the blogosphere takes a back seat.

I could have sworn last Monday's meeting was called for seven. My iPhone and the MeetUp app said six. So I aimed for six.

Thursday, April 28, 2016

There is actually some room to spare in the kitchen thanks to some creative use of space under the stairs.

We built one of those custom shelf things on casters that lives under the stairs and holds kitchen stuff that is rarely used but can't be disposed of, like cookie sheets, the pizza pan, the mammoth turkey-sized roasting pan, and some other stuff.

Monday, April 18, 2016

"Should all these boxes go in the locker? Oh, and where's the locker?"

"Right..."

The beauty of a three story town house, with the den, office, and spare bedroom on the third floor, is that it's a really nice retreat. Or will be, once the furniture is in the right places, the TV is up and running, the home network is firing on all cylinders... To be honest, as much progress as we have made, on M+6 the house is not nearly a home.

Too much cardboard. Too much wrapping paper. Too much, and I thought I'd never say this because normally it's endless fun, bubble wrap.

At least the internet as I knew it and the Apple wireless network is functional. The TV is only partially operational though. I think the Bell guy might have to make a return engagement.

The point of all of this is that there is hope. There is definitely hope.

I just thought I'd check in, in case you all thought I had plowed the Vespa into a culvert somewhere down the 401 in Ontari-ari-ari-oh.

Saturday, April 2, 2016

I forgive you without hesitation for thinking I was indulging in a just a tiny little bit of exageration. Mark Twain had a nice way of putting it. He called them stretchers, truth embellished with a gloss that invites a reasonable person's closer scrutiny.

Wednesday, March 23, 2016

Easter Sunday is almost here. The family will be gathering. You need to think about making something exceptional as an antidote to all the sugary treats the Easter Bunny is about to bring.

I anticipate few meals as much as when the star of the occasion is a standing rib roast. I know that many people figure that a nice leg of lamb or a bone in ham is the tradition for Easter so my suggestion will strike you as doubly counterintuitive, but bear with me. There's plenty of time to shift gears.

Wednesday, March 16, 2016

This project report shows how I replaced the heated grips on my Vespa GTS 300 i.e. Super. If you are installing heated grips for the first time, you should refer to my earlier project report concerning the initial installation of heated grips. That project report is more complete and shows all the steps involved in disassembling the Vespa's headset, removing the stock grips, making a wiring loom, installing the heat control, and installing the heated grips.

When the time came to install heated grips on the Vespa GTS 300 i.e. Super, I hit a challenge. There's always a challenge.

Thursday, March 10, 2016

Susan and I have a lot invested in our Montreal home, and I don't mean money.

When we were last thinking of moving it was because Susan really wanted a larger family room. That, and she had her eye on this part of Beaconsfield south for years. I would have been quite content to stay in our old house.

Wednesday, March 2, 2016

Let me tell you the story of Delibee, a tiny little jewel of a restaurant tucked away in a sleepy suburb, just north of the train tracks, and just west of bustling Trudeau International Airport.

To understand how important this virtually unknown eatery is, you need some historical and cultural context to work with. So let's travel briefly away from Delibee and head east towards downtown and then a little further east to the street Montrealers who have a long history here call 'the Main'.

I decided to save a stand-alone post for the last response. I'm glad it's over, but kind of sad to pen the last response.

My responses revealed my character in significant ways, in the way that Chuck Close's hundreds and hundreds of tiny abstracts yield a portrait once you back off enough. If you've never experienced his work, I encourage you to seek it out, or click here to see some examples online (but it's not the same experience as seeing it in a museum).

Sunday, February 28, 2016

Kathy (ToadMama) published what she is calling her Brave, Bold Blogger Challenge. It's simple, a challenge that's a little crazy, and potentially demanding, but that is turning ought to be a whole lot of fun and very revealing for the participating bloggers.

Monday, February 15, 2016

The end is in sight for the crossroads period of my life. March 30, 2016. That's when we pull up roots and begin a new life in Toronto.

All the conditions for the sale of our Montreal home, and the purchase of our Toronto home, have been satisfied. Now it's all about wrapping up the basement renovation and packing. The renovation began before the offer to purchase our Montreal home came in, so we're committed to completing it. Now it's just a question of getting the paint out of the cans and onto the walls without making a mess of the floors.

Kathy (ToadMama) published what she is calling her Brave, Bold Blogger Challenge. It's simple, a challenge that's a little crazy, and potentially demanding, but that is turning ought to be a whole lot of fun and very revealing for the participating bloggers.

Sunday, January 17, 2016

I know why it's a Big Move, but I have no clue why it's the Big Smoke,
and I have no inclination to Google it. We already have enough dim views
of Toronto as a new place to call home, that adding one more is a bad idea.

The copyright in all text and photographs, except as noted, belongs to David Masse.

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About Life on two wheels

Welcome

I am David Masse, and this is Life on two wheels.

Life on two wheels began as a way to explore my decision to commute to my job in downtown Montreal from my home in the suburbs on a Vespa motor scooter, and the byline for my journal was the Scoot Commute. Today I live in Toronto, I've expanded the scope of topics I cover here, and I've added a YouTube channel as well.

Over time my life on two wheels became much more than a scooter commuting story. My Vespa and my web and video journals became a gateway to wonderful new experiences, remarkable adventures, and enduring friendships.

The links at the top of the page make it easier for you access the information in this journal in a more useful way, organized by topic, as well as a link to the YouTube video journals.

If I've helped you, and if I've entertained you along the way, then I've done what I set out to do. Please feel free to post comments, I love to hear from readers and viewers, so don't be shy. I even do requests, and will do my best to dig up information to help readers out.

I've also hosted guest posts, most recently an excellent post by Jim Mandle that came out of an e-mail exchange.

It's all good fun, a multifaceted web and YouTube journal where I publish articles with useful insights for enjoying life, embracing the present, stepping out, living, seeing, writing, being, and the occasional rant.

Most recently I learned that Life on two wheels made it well into the top 100 motorcycle blogs in the world.